Did Criminal Minds Season 16 Finale Take a Page Out of House Playbook?
For House fans, the vision of the deceased in a life-or-death situation is all too familiar.
Wrapping up most of the season's arcs in a way that both satisfied and surprised viewers, the Criminal Minds Season 16 finale left fans with plenty to think about and discuss. Among other storylines, one felt too familiar to any cinephile. So let's dive into it. Beware of spoilers!
An award for the most emotional arc this season definitely goes to David Rossi. The agent, brilliantly played by Joe Mantegna, proved to be the heart and soul of the season. Having lost his wife Krystall to an undisclosed illness a year before the events of Evolution, Rossi struggled to accept his loss, which led to reckless behavior and rash decisions that landed him in one of Voit's containers.
While the unsub was using Rossi as a bargaining chip in negotiations for his freedom, the profiler was playing escape room in the underground container. He managed to build a bomb out of things he found in the container and blew open the door. But the blast caused a collapse that blocked the only way out. When Rossi realized he was buried alive with oxygen levels quickly approaching zero, he saw Krystall.
His late wife's specter was a welcome sight to Rossi, who was ready to give up and join her in the afterlife. But Krystall managed to convince the agent that he must live, never give up, and believe in his team. This imaginary dialogue also helped Rossi finally accept his loss, just moments before he was rescued by the BAU.
Fans of House, M.D. will find this scene very familiar. It is hard not to remember the scene in the medical series finale when House found himself in a burning building next to a dead body and had a lengthy hallucination of his colleagues (dead and alive) arguing about whether he should die in the fire or escape.
This scene was clearly a metaphor for the thoughts of a person contemplating suicide, and it became quite popular with viewers.
Whether the Criminal Minds writers were inspired by the House scene or not, the "dear lost people representing subconscious" trope is a powerful technique for showing what's going on in a character's mind. And fans are sure glad that Evolution used it.